Why risk is so appealing to us: The neuroscience of gambling

 Gambling is defined as “the betting or staking of something of value, with consciousness of risk and hope of gain on an uncertain event whose result may be determined by chance.”(Encyclopedia Britannica) This behavior is very prevalent all throughout our modern world, whether it is the classic mediums, such as casinos, betting lounges and card games with friends, or relatively newer mediums, such as online poker games or even dedicated apps to sports betting. Gambling seems to be all around us, since in modern times, we’ve developed new events to bet on. A striking example of this was the recent U.S. elections – many betting platforms allowed the public to gamble on who would win the presidency: Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. The ability to bet on this event reduced the succession of the most powerful country’s leader to a matter of odds. 

Scientific evidence indicates that gambling activates the brain’s reward system in much the same way that drugs do. How does this process work? Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain, a chemical substance that is used for transmitting signals through neurons. In the press, dopamine is referred to as the “pleasure molecule”, although researchers have discovered it would be more apt to describe it as the “desirability molecule,” (Nestler et al., 2008). It is understandable why dopamine is associated with pleasure – it plays an essential role in our reward pathways and we associate reward with enjoyment and satisfaction. Its true role is more related to motivational salience, that is, how desirable or undesirable an outcome is for us (Wenzel et al., 2014). When we gamble (and win) our brain is suddenly flooded with dopamine, and that makes us believe that our risk-taking was worth it, that this uncertain outcome we were risking money on is now more desirable because we believe we can win again. When we gamble and lose, we justify to ourselves that maybe we just had a bad hand, or that next time we’ll do better and actually win. This is how the cycle starts. Over time, our brain becomes accustomed to the increased levels of dopamine in our brain, and we need to stay at this new baseline level. From there on out, winning once becomes the norm that we aim to achieve, and the previous dopamine baseline from before we started gambling becomes a repulsive state to be in. Gamblers start betting more money or more often, slowly raising their dopamine baseline higher and higher each time, and thus, the cycle continues.

Research has shown that this dopamine action occurs in two regions of the brain: the ventral striatum and the prefrontal cortex (PFC). A study of these regions show that pathological gamblers have reported decreased responses to gaining money specifically in the ventral striatum and portions of the prefrontal cortex (Sescousse et al., 2013). Zeroing in on the prefrontal cortex, we find that this region is responsible for planning, reasoning, controlling behavior and other complex cognitive processes (Gazzaniga et al., 2019). When gambling, there is decreased activity of the PFC and increased connectivity with the reward system in the brain, a portion of which is the ventral striatum. Essentially, our brains have a reduced ability to make rational, well thought out decisions, and become ruled by our faster, simpler reward pathways. This shift of control pathways can be dangerous for easily impressionable children and teenagers, and a gateway path to gambling for them is specific types of gaming.

The study of gambling effects and the neuroimaging of pathological gamblers has occurred for decades, but a modern threat is gambling being too accessible to children and adolescents, as it may lead to precursory behaviors of risk-taking and/or addiction. Even though gambling in most countries is banned until adulthood, there are increasing ways for younger people to fall down this path of risk-taking. An example of this is the game Counter Strike: Global Offensive, commonly abbreviated as CSGO. On its surface, CSGO seems to be just another first-person shooter video game, but what sets it apart is the community that has formed around an element of the game: loot boxes. In this game, loot boxes are boxes that the player can purchase with in-game currency, which can itself be bought by real currency, for the chance to obtain a rare ‘skin’ of a gun. In other words, there is a random chance that you get a desired design. Some of the skins are extremely rare, and the people that are lucky enough to obtain them can sell them for real money to the community. As per a tracker made by the company that developed the game, in 2023 alone, loot boxes accounted for $1 billion of the revenue made that year (TeamG2G, 2024). Even though the game has an 18+ rating, it is widely accessible to download all over online marketplaces, and has a predominant user base of adolescents. Such in-game risk taking can be labeled as “soft” gambling, as the goal of the games is not to stake money, but an element of it is composed of just that. This raises the question – are video games a new platform for early gambling? 

Supporting this idea, a 2021 study by Steinmetz et al. was conducted to see if pay-to-win games have the correlational nature to foster gambling addictions later on in life. Pay-to-win games are games “relating to the practice of paying to get weapons, abilities, etc. that give you an advantage over players who do not spend money.” (Cambridge Dictionary) The researchers claim in the introduction that “by linking in-game purchases with virtual superiority over other players, pay-to-win games intensify competition and monetize individuals’ competitiveness.” This is similar to gambling, where competitiveness increases engagement (Mowen et al., 2009) and leads to the players taking larger risks. From their results, the researchers discuss that while there is no direct link between general gambling and pay-to-win games, there is an important link between the unlimited frequency payments (which characterize pay-to-win games) and gambling (which is characterized by ever increasing sums or frequencies of payments). Simply put, the ability to constantly pay money to increase your chances of winning in the game could be a real threat and risk leading the pay-to-win gamer to gambler pipeline. 

Pay-to-win games and games with loot boxes are becoming more prevalent in the gaming world every year, and the worst aspect of it is that they are accessible to the youth more than ever before in the history of gaming. All it takes is an internet connection and some money to start. “Soft” gambling, if left unchecked by both the legal world and the parents, could lead to devastating effects on the next generation.

We like risk because it activates our reward pathways, and we become addicted to risk when we feel a rush of dopamine like never before and yearn for that feeling again. Gambling is just one example, but with the rise of opportunities to bet money on events, sports, even presidential elections, it might have the right set of circumstances to become even more prevalent in our society. Additionally, precursors to gambling addictions in the form of pay-to-win games and loot boxes are new modes through which the younger generation could be pulled into it. Most notably, the cause and effect of gambling addiction isn’t directly known yet. The studies referenced conducted correlational research which aimed to connect the action with the neural response, but there is still much research to be done. Gambling is a slippery slope, whether you start playing cards with friends for money or buying one loot box in a game; once you win a couple times, the cycle of addiction has already set small roots in your brain. Stay safe, stay rational, and stay away from gambling.